Hurricanes power through Storm
Halifax earns a tough three-point road win on Sunday in Charlottetown
The Halifax Hurricanes had a formula in turning a sevenpoint fourth-quarter deficit into a 103-100 win over the Island Storm on Sunday in Charlottetown.
But no magic was involved when the Hurricanes lagged under the Storm’s 82-77 lead 12 seconds into the fourth quarter of the National Basketball League of Canada game.
Instead, credit plain old hard work, said Halifax forward Billy White.
“Defence. We took pride in our defence. (Lately) we’ve been getting by just playing our type of basketball, but today we were redeeming ourselves. It was good team defence, not just one person,” said White, who finished with a team-high 22 points. “Happy we got this win. Any win on the road in this league is big. We were just playing through the tough stretches of the game ... trying to limit their runs and keep them in a half-court offence. In transition, they’re one of the best teams in the league. (Head) coach (Mike Leslie) told us ‘don’t panic, calm down and take it one possession at a time.’”
The Storm drops to 10-12, fourth in the Atlantic Division, and has now lost eight of the last 10 games. Halifax goes to 12-8 and is just a few percentage points behind the Saint John Riptide for the lead in the Atlantic. It has also won six of its last 10.
A topsy-turvy first half saw Halifax take a 26-17 lead in the second quarter, but once there the Storm caught fire and rolled off a 28-22 session and were down 48-45 at the half.
A torrid third frame, led by forward Chris Anderson, gave the Storm a 34-27 edge and a 79-75 advantage heading to the fourth. Anderson in one stretch in the third had six points, three boards, a block, an assist and drew a foul to ignite the Storm.
The fourth, though, was another matter and Anderson said, as a team, the Storm let its foot off the gas pedal — a no-no against a good team like Halifax.
“I think we just got kind of stagnant. We wanted to run out the clock a little bit,” said Anderson, adding the team will regroup and aim at improving Sunday’s 62 per cent free-throw shooting. “We’ll take (Monday) and get back at it. Knocking down the foul shots is always huge.”
Franklin Session and Du’Vaughn Maxwell each had 25 points for the Storm, while Anderson chipped in a doubledouble of 15 points and a gamehigh 15 rebounds.
Andre Stringer dished out a game-high nine assists.
Billy White led Halifax with 22 points. Mike Poole chipped in 16 points, while Ta’Quan Zimmerman had 13 points. C.J. Washington led the ’Canes with eight boards.
Next, the Storm host Halifax on Saturday, Feb. 3. Game time is 7 p.m. at Eastlink Centre.